


Apples and Oranges

by nikkiRA



Category: All For the Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: M/M, Multi, Polyamory, do u ever cry, my almost canon OT3, this got so long
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-20
Updated: 2016-05-20
Packaged: 2018-06-09 12:56:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6908140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nikkiRA/pseuds/nikkiRA
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is what he can’t explain to Matt – they are so different that they cannot be compared. The other Foxes think of it as Neil and Kevin, Neil and Andrew, Andrew and Kevin. They do not see it for what it is – Neil and Andrew and Kevin. He can’t choose between them because he doesn’t have to. They are incomparable. Apples and oranges. They make him different. They make him better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apples and Oranges

**Author's Note:**

> i'm so far gone with this ship please send help

The first time he kisses Andrew is hard, because Andrew is hard. Andrew is unyielding. Andrew is made of sharp edges and he will laugh as you cut yourself on him.

Andrew bites his lip and Neil keeps his hands to himself.

* * *

The first time he kisses Kevin has _mistake_ written all over it. It is one of those things that is happening before he even realizes it. It feels like a mistake. It feels like a dream. It feels like waking up.

He thinks they might have been fighting. He assumes it had been about Exy, because what else did Kevin ever talk about?

Neil thinks this is a much better use of Kevin’s mouth.

He opens his eyes and sees the black outline of Kevin’s 2 tattoo and leans away. Kevin stares at him with wide eyes. He opens his mouth. Neil half expects him to lecture him about not letting this get in the way of the game.

Neil runs.

* * *

The second time he kisses Andrew is much the same. The second time he kisses Kevin is definitely a mistake. This time Kevin looks very irritated, but Neil isn’t sure if that’s because of the kissing or because Neil cut him off in the middle of a tirade.

Judging from the way he kisses back, he’s guessing it’s the latter.

When they pull away Kevin just looks at him and says, “You were still sloppy today.”

Neil can’t believe Kevin is a real person.

* * *

He isn’t sure if he should tell Andrew or Kevin. He knows he should tell one of them. Probably both of them.

If only his mother could see him now. He’s pretty sure that when was beating his attraction to girls out of him, this wasn’t what she had in mind.

He tries Kevin first, because Kevin is least likely to kill him. The problem is the only real time he’s alone with Kevin is late night Exy practices.

“I kissed Andrew,” he says. Kevin glares.

“You’re distracting yourself. You have to leave everything else behind you when you step on the court.”

“Jesus Christ, Kevin. Did you even hear me?”

“It’s not important. All that’s important right now is that if we faced the Ravens right now you would be crucified.”

“Not everything is about Exy.” But Kevin just looks at him, and Neil drops the subject. For Kevin, everything _was_ about Exy. That’s what he had been groomed for. He knew nothing else.

Neil picks up his racquet again.

* * *

“You have to like one of them more,” Matt says to him one day. “It’s just human nature.” At Neil’s silence, he continues. “I mean, I don’t understand _either_ of them, to be honest, but there has to be – you have to be more in love with one of them than you are with the other.”

Neil objects slightly to the word choice, but he knows that’s not the point.

“I like them both differently. That doesn’t mean it’s not equal.”

“That is such a cop-out answer.”

“Don’t ask questions if you don’t want to hear the answers.”

Matt shakes his head. “I think this is the one thing about you that I will never understand.”

Neil just smiles.

* * *

Talking to Kevin is like talking to a wall. Or rather, talking to Kevin is like talking to an Exy ball. It only functions on the court, it doesn’t talk back, and it hurts when it hits you. There has been a lot of fucked up shit that has happened in his life, but that doesn’t make the fact that it is somehow easier to communicate with Andrew than with Kevin any less weird.

“Andrew,” he starts. Andrew shoots him a bored look. He tells himself Andrew promised to keep him alive, and killing him would definitely be in violation of that. Part of him thinks there is too much going on for them to be concerned about things like this, but part of him knows how Andrew is about trust.

“I kissed Kevin,” he says.

Andrew still gives him that bored look. Neil waits for a reaction that never comes.

What he gets, finally, is just this: “You too?”

* * *

“You could have told me.”

Somehow he is able to wait until after practice to bring it up, although he has been stewing with the knowledge the entire time. It is not that he is mad that they had been – are – hooking up. He is annoyed that he had opened that door for an answer only to have it slammed in his face because of _Exy._

There are likely many things that Kevin hasn’t told him, so he waits for Neil to clarify.

“You and Andrew. You could have told me.”

“I didn’t think it was relevant.”

“Why? Because it’s not Exy?”

“Because it’s not your business.”

“How is it not my business? Both of you kiss me and then I find out you had hooked up months ago? I think that’s kind of my business.”

“You kissed me,” Kevin points out. Neil heavily resists the urge to roll his eyes.

“That is not the point.”

“All of this would do nothing but serve as a distraction.”

“Stop saying that fucking word.”

“You gave me your game.”

“I gave you my game, not my life.”

“You don’t have a life, Neil.”

He doesn’t say it to be mean. It is simply the truth. Neil has a year, and he had given that year to Kevin.

“Fine. So I gave you my life. The least you can do is reciprocate.”

“You want my life?” Kevin says disbelievingly.

“I want _something.”_

Kevin seems to fight some kind of war within himself. Finally he says, “If I suspect for even a second that this is interfering with your game I will –”

“Bench me?”

He didn’t think it was possible for someone to look annoyed while pushing someone else against a wall, but if anyone were able to accomplish it, he is unsurprised that it is Kevin.

Always the overachiever.

* * *

This is what he can’t explain to Matt – they are so different that they cannot be compared. The other Foxes think of it as Neil and Kevin, Neil and Andrew, Andrew and Kevin. They do not see it for what it is – Neil and Andrew and Kevin. He can’t choose between them because he doesn’t have to. They are incomparable. Apples and oranges. They make him different. They make him better.

He is getting sentimental.

* * *

He can kiss Kevin in a way he cannot kiss Andrew. He is okay with the way he kisses Andrew. He understands, and he is mostly just happy he is allowed to kiss him at all. It will take him almost a year before he is able to touch Andrew the way he wants, and he goes as slow as Andrew needs and stops the second Andrew asks. When they are finished they kiss for so long Neil loses track of time, but Andrew is okay and that’s all that’s ever really mattered to him.

There is no waiting with Kevin, and Neil is okay with that too. Andrew kisses him slow and tears him apart and Neil buries his hands in his hair, tries not to tug too hard and probably fails. Andrew draws him out.

Kevin does not do this. Quite frankly, Kevin doesn’t have the time. Once Neil asks him if he gets them off so quickly so that they can go back to Exy. Kevin does not answer this.

Neil has never really kissed before, so it is impossible to determine which way he prefers. When Andrew is pulling him apart, hand pinning Neil’s wrists above his head, tugging at his lower lip, fire burning slow in his stomach, he thinks there can’t possibly be anything better than this. Then he will be pressed against a wall, hands under Kevin’s shirt, and Kevin has to lean down so impossibly far to reach him that eventually he starts complaining about back pain. Him and Kevin fight, probably because that’s all they really do when they’re not kissing, so why should this be any different?

The locker room is where it normally happens, and Neil almost bruises sometimes with the force that he is pushed into the wall. Kevin will eventually get gentler, as Andrew will eventually let them touch him, as Neil will eventually stop lying to them, but for now they kiss like they’re fighting. Neil thinks it might be an outlet for whatever is brewing within Kevin, something left over from Riko, something to assure him he can fight back. Sometimes he thinks Kevin is just genuinely annoyed with him. The fire that burns so slow in his stomach when Andrew kisses him is wildfire when he is pinning Kevin down on the bench.

“This is the most uncomfortable position that you could have pushed me into.”

“Are you ever happy?”

Kevin kisses him, and Neil kisses him back, because Neil doesn’t want to hear the answer and Kevin doesn’t want to give it.

* * *

There is something exhilarating about the fact that Andrew wants him.

There is something overwhelming about the fact that Kevin knows who he is and wants him anyway.

* * *

It stays like this until he is taken by his father.

When the FBI threatens that his team had left, he knows without a doubt that they are lying. Andrew would want to see him so he could kill Neil with his own two hands.

What he doesn’t say, but what he hopes, is that Kevin won’t leave either. Kevin was the only one who had the whole story but wanted him anyway. There was no reason for Kevin to leave now.

When he gets to the hotel he sees Kevin first. His eyes are drawn to him. Kevin is standing alone, back to the wall. There are dark bruises on his throat. He looks at Neil with terrified eyes. He takes one halting step, than two, and Neil wants to meet him halfway, but he forces himself to stay still. Kevin stops a step in front of him, and he runs his eyes over Neil’s face. His eyes are wide with horror. He lifts a hand as if to touch Neil, but ultimately it drops to his side. He opens his mouth to speak, closes it, opens it again. His hands clench uselessly.

After it is evident that he won’t – can’t – speak, Neil asks, “Where’s And –”

There is a crash behind him as someone slams through the door. Kevin steps away immediately, hands flying to his throat, and Neil has a brief understanding that Kevin didn’t get those bruises in the riot before the agent beside him is raising his gun. He grabs his arm to stop him and is almost knocked out by the intensity of pain that washes over him.

There is a hand on the back of his neck, forcing him to his knees. He goes with no resistance, letting Andrew guide him. He raises his eyes from his ruined hands to Andrew’s face. There is a horrid bruise by his eye. Neil stares at it.

“They could have blinded you,” he says. “All that fighting and you never learned how to duck?”

Andrew does not respond to this. One hand comes up to Neil’s face, but the other is still chained to Wymack.

“Uncuff him,” Neil says, not taking his eyes off of Andrew.

“After all the shit he’s pulled –”

“I said uncuff him. This investigation is nothing without me. You know it, I know it. I am the only lead you have. So uncuff Andrew, give us some space, and stop wasting my twenty minutes.”

“So the attitude wasn’t a lie, at least,” Andrew says as they remove the handcuffs from his wrist.

“I wanted to tell you.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I did. I was going to tell you after the game, but they were in the locker room with us.”

“They?” Said one of the agents. Neil switches to German immediately. He feels bad, since this left Kevin out, but there was no other language they shared. He would just have to explain later.

“Those weren’t security guards. They were there to take me away. They said they would hurt you. All of you. I didn’t know they’d staged a riot.”

“What did I tell you about playing the martyr?”

“You said no one liked it. You didn’t tell me to stop doing it.”

“It was implied.”

“I’m stupid, remember? Am I at ninety-four yet?”

“You are at one hundred.” Andrew starts taking stock of Neil’s injuries. The cheek that had faced Lola’s knife doesn’t hold his attention for long, and he moves onto the other one. The bandage hurts like hell coming off.

“What happened?” Andrew asks as he is pulling the bandage off.

“Dashboard lighter,” Neil says through gritted teeth. He hears revolted noises from the Foxes at his words, but that is nothing compared to the strangled sound that comes out of Kevin, who is the only other person with a view of his cheek. He takes a step forward, hand outstretched towards Neil, but Andrew shoots him a glare that is so fierce it sends shivers down Neil’s spine.

“Stop,” he says, voice boiling over in anger. Kevin seems to have forgotten where the bruises on his throat came from, because he keeps coming. All the colour has drained from his face and he looks like he is about to be sick. His lips form Neil’s name soundlessly.

“One more step and I will break your other hand,” Andrew says, and that is what finally gets through to Kevin, who stops, hand still slightly outstretched towards Neil.

“Andrew,” Neil says. Andrew is still glaring at Kevin. Neil threads his fingers through Andrew’s hair and tugs lightly until Andrew turns his head. “It’s just Kevin.”

This just seems to anger Andrew more, but he restrains himself, clenching his jaw. Neil glances at Kevin, who is still staring at him, before turning back to Andrew.

“I have to tell them everything. Do you want to be there for it? It’s the story I should have told you months ago.”

“I have to go. I don’t trust them to give you back.”

He glances at Kevin. Kevin doesn’t have to come, because he already knows, but more importantly he doubts Andrew will let him.

“What happened?” He asks Kevin in French. Andrew looks less than pleased about this, and he shoots Kevin another look, but he doesn’t say anything.

“I told him the truth,” Kevin responds. “With some… persuasion.”

The truth too late. He’s not sure Andrew will be able to forgive Kevin for knowing the truth and sending Neil to his death anyway.

He swallows and stands up. He finally looks around at the other Foxes. He isn’t sure if Dan is holding Matt back, or if it’s the other way around. Aaron is standing next to Nicky, who looks like he is about to vomit. Renee is sitting next to Allison with her hand in a brace, while Allison is looking between the three of them with her eyebrows drawn together. Before he goes he turns once again to Kevin and asks a question that has been weighing on his mind for a while now.

“Who am I to you? Do you see me as Neil or Nathaniel?”

“You’re you,” Kevin says slowly. “You’re Neil.”

He turns to Andrew. “Can I really still be Neil?”

“I told Neil to stay,” Andrew says easily. “Let Nathaniel be buried with his father.”

He nods and turns towards the door, Andrew following.

“I didn’t agree to take him,” the agent says. Neil grabs Andrew’s sleeve before he can do anything.

“Trust me,” Wymack says. “It will go much quicker if you take them both.”

Neil looks back at Kevin, who is watching the two of them. He looks like he swallowed something unpleasant.

Andrew pulls him forward.

* * *

Back at the dorms Andrew comes to his room with him and Matt makes an unconvincing excuse as to why he can’t stay. Neil leans forward to kiss him once Matt is gone; he needs to know if Andrew will kiss him back. If he’s forgiven him.

He does. Andrew’s mouth opens under his and Neil holds onto his sleeves with shaky hands. Neil kisses him like he’s dying, but Andrew pulls away and goes back to checking on Neil’s injuries.

The door opens. Both of them assume it is Matt back to grab something and ignore it, but when Neil looks up it is Kevin who is standing there.

“Get away from us,” Andrew almost growls. Neil decides that now is not the time to remind him that Kevin was part of that us, too.

“Andrew –”

“Get out of here.”

“Andrew, stop. Don’t blame him to doing what I told him. Be mad at me, not him.”

“Trust me,” Andrew says. “I am mad at you.”

“Let me talk to him. Andrew. Let me talk to him.”

Andrew’s jaw clenches, and he steps back, but he doesn’t leave the room, and Neil is conscious of his eyes on him as Kevin steps forward.

Neil presses a finger to the bruises on Kevin’s neck and feels him swallow.

“Are you okay?” He asks this in French to give Kevin some privacy. Kevin doesn’t answer this. He isn’t sure Kevin had even heard him.

“He’s going to kill you,” Kevin says, hand hovering over Neil’s cheek.

“I’m not afraid of Riko anymore.”

“How?” Kevin asks. Neil isn’t sure if he’s asking how Neil isn’t afraid, or how not to be afraid at all.

“You don’t have to be afraid, either,” he tells him. “You can be more than this.”

Kevin takes a step closer. Andrew makes a warning sound.

“He deserves to be here, too,” he tells Andrew in German. “I want him here,” he adds, and this cuts off whatever Andrew was about to say.

He curls his fingers around the back of Kevin’s neck, pulling him down. Kevin seems momentarily resistant to kiss him in front of Andrew, but this situation was complicated enough before Neil had been kidnapped and tortured, and this is all unchartered territory now. Kissing hurts his cheeks, but Kevin kisses him desperately, an apology in every sweep of his tongue.

Kevin pulls away but he doesn’t go far, and he rests his head on Neil’s, forehead on the top of his head, hands still hanging limply by his side as if he was too afraid to touch Neil.

Eventually Andrew must make some kind of motion behind Neil because Kevin steps away. He kisses the side of Neil’s face briefly before shooting Andrew a look and then leaving.

* * *

Kevin puts up a fight when they suggest a vacation, but a scathing look from Andrew (and, Neil suspects, one of his knives) and a look at Neil’s injuries seems to change his mind. The team seems to realize something is going on between Andrew and Neil, as they are relegated to the downstairs bedroom that has only one bed, but Andrew doesn’t say anything about. No one, except maybe Allison, seems to realize that Kevin is involved in the mix as well.

Andrew is talking to Kevin again, even though that seems to consist almost entirely of threats. It’s better than the silent treatment, at least, since Andrew seems to consists almost entirely of threats on a good day.

Kevin’s eyes follow him wherever he goes but Andrew physically follows him wherever he goes, and Kevin’s bruises haven’t faded yet.

The first night they head to bed Neil shoots Kevin a meaningful look. Kevin shakes his head. Neil raises his eyebrows. Kevin shakes his head, but he looks less sure of himself this time.

It takes almost half an hour after everyone heads to bed, but finally there is a knock on the door. Neil looks at Andrew.

“He’s a part of this, too.”

Andrew doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t stop Neil when he gets up.

Kevin has his arms crossed when Neil opens the door. He looks past Neil into the room.

“Are you sure?”

Neil isn’t entirely sure what he is asking about, but Kevin follows him into the room anyway.

Andrew had seen the damage when Abby had, but Kevin has not. Neil sits down and gestures at himself, indicating that Kevin can do as he likes. Andrew watches all of this with an expression Neil can’t read.

Kevin sits beside him on the bed. He had seen Neil’s face but he still flinches away from it. Neil reaches out and touches the tattoo on Kevin’s cheek.

Kevin takes Neil’s hand and examines his arms. His arms are probably the worst part, and he watches Kevin’s face as he removes the bandages. Kevin stares in horror. His hands are shaking. Neil grabs them to keep them still. Kevin raises his eyes to Neil’s face and leans into him.

Kevin had seemed reluctant to kiss Neil before, when Andrew was there, but the full view of Neil’s injuries seems to overpower the tension that had been brewing between them. Neil kisses back, because he has to, because Kevin is gripping his wrist in a way that is just a little too painful, and Neil had missed them both, but he is very aware of Andrew on the bed beside them. He isn’t sure what any of this means. He had no experience to hold it up against, no knowledge to bring to the table. He and Andrew had been new. He and Kevin had been new. He and Andrew and Kevin were something else entirely.

Kevin’s hand comes up to cup his neck, shifting ever so closer, and Neil kisses back eagerly. He is lost in the moment until he feels a hand on his leg.

A hand that is definitely not Kevin’s.

He moves away from Kevin and looks at Andrew, who stares back. “Yes or no?”

Neil isn’t sure what he’s asking, but he knows the answer anyway. “Yes.”

Andrew doesn’t move, and it takes Neil a moment to realize he was talking to Kevin, too. Kevin seems to realize this only shortly after Neil does, and he nods.

That’s when everything changes.

* * *

Andrew’s thing is his neck. He will pretend until his dying day that he doesn’t like it, but Neil can tell by the shivers he tries to suppress that he’s lying.

“Your neck fetish is not attractive,” he grounds out one day.

“You like it,” Neil says, lips still pressed against Andrew’s skin. “I like that you like it.”

Kevin’s thing is his ears. Neil will tug lightly on the lobe and it will utterly unravel Kevin, who will dig his fingers into Neil’s skin, bite his lip and swallow a moan. Neil misuses this power, distracting Kevin whenever he is being particularly annoying, or he’s overly stressed out, or he won’t shut up about Exy. Often he’ll do it after late night practice, when Kevin will be nitpicking at him and Neil just wants him to shut up. Some of those nights Kevin gives in easily; others not so much.

“You have to remember that that racquet is much heavier and you –”

“Kevin.”

“The Ravens will pick up on those weaknesses,” he says, fighting to keep his voice even. “They will –”

“Kevin,” Neil says, right into his ear, pushing him harder against the wall. “We are not talking about Exy right now.”

“If we want to win –”

Neil bites down. Kevin can’t quite stifle the noise that draws out of him.

The door bangs open. Andrew looks a very dangerous combination of tired and grumpy.

“Fuck on your own time,” he says. “I’m going to bed.”

They follow Andrew out, but they decide to be particularly obnoxious and make out in the back seat on the ride back to the dorms.

* * *

Kevin craves affection in a way that neither Neil nor Andrew do, because he’s the only one who knows what it is, however briefly. Kayleigh Day wasn’t the world’s most loving mother, but she was much better than any of the people in Neil’s or Andrew’s lives. At the very least she was affectionate with him. She didn’t shower him with love or physical touch, but he still grew up knowing what it was like to be hugged, or holding hands, or all the other shows of affection that were totally unknown to Neil and Andrew. And since Andrew wasn’t big on touching on most days, that left only Neil.

Kevin was only affectionate in the dark or when he’d been drinking. If you told the rest of the Foxes that Kevin was a fierce cuddler they would laugh, and Neil wouldn’t have believed it either if he didn’t wake up every morning with six feet of Kevin Day draped all over him.

It was more apparent when he was drinking. Neil still wasn’t big on drinking and Andrew never drank enough to lose control, but Kevin had always used alcohol as some kind of escape. At the bar he would collapse against Neil and press a horribly sloppy kiss to his temple (Nicky nearly had a coronary the first time this happened). At home he would stumble in and drag Neil, who was usually supporting him, down onto the couch. Neil and Andrew would exchange a look before Kevin would awkwardly shift until all of their limbs were folded somewhat comfortably onto the couch. Neil would normally mutter _Christ, your breath,_ before half-heartedly trying to shove him off. He never succeeded, partly because Kevin was almost a foot taller than him, but mostly because he didn’t really want to. It was rare to get this kind of unguarded emotion from Kevin. Often Kevin would fall asleep and Neil would shoot Andrew a plea for help, which Andrew returned with a look that says quite clearly _you got yourself into this mess._

Eventually Kevin will shift slightly so that Neil can actually breathe, and more than once he falls asleep on the couch, Kevin’s drunken snoring in his ear.

* * *

The day Kevin comes home with a queen on his cheek he tumbles into the room and lets Neil look under the bandage.

“Let Riko be king,” he says. “I’m going to be the most powerful piece on the board.”

“Queen,” Andrew says from the doorway. Kevin puts his hands on either side of the door and leans down.

Neil and Andrew have yes or no, but Kevin tends to stop just short of being in Andrew’s personal space and lets him make the decision to move forward or not. Andrew has to stretch to reach Kevin’s lips, and Neil can tell from the look Andrew shoots him later that Kevin’s breath is as bad as Neil thinks it is.

They manage to get Kevin into bed with moderate effort. Neil collapses on the couch next to Andrew afterwards.

“I think he has a drinking problem,” he says with a smirk. Andrew rolls his eyes and pushes him down.

* * *

Of all the places Neil thought he would end up, this was not one of the options. Neil had figured they all ended with him being buried in some shallow grave beneath his father’s house.

This was not part of the equation.

One of the cats almost makes a run for it when he opens the door to the apartment. He grabs him quickly before he finds freedom and pushes him back into the house.

“You’re not going to find anyone who treats you better out there,” he mutters. He drops his bag on the floor, rummages in the fridge for leftovers, and comes up empty handed. He debates making something, but his exhaustion beats out over his hunger, so he heads straight to the bedroom instead.

He opens the door and the other cat comes running out. He stares after him. He wonders what the hell Andrew and Kevin do to them that make them want to leave so badly. Anyone else would be worried that Andrew had been violent with them, as he was with everyone else, but Neil knew that Andrew was more likely to kill someone over the cat than he was to ever hurt the cat. Maybe Kevin was trying to teach them how to play Exy.

Speaks of the devils. Andrew is on his side, his back to the wall, as usual. Neil knows there is a knife under the pillow he is currently sleeping on. Kevin, on the other hand, is sprawled out, taking up the rest of the bed. He is shirtless, lying on his stomach, head turned towards Andrew. Neil changes into pyjamas and then starts kicking Kevin lightly.

“Wake up. Kevin. Kevin, _wake up.”_ Kevin mumbles, shifts, opens his eyes, and smiles sleepily up at Neil. Neil tries his hardest not to be charmed.

“Hi,” he says.

“Hi. Move over.”

Kevin does with only minimal whining. Neil crawls in between him and Andrew and tries to act annoyed when Kevin turns into him and snakes a hand up under his shirt.

“Are you trying to teach the cats how to play Exy?”

“No,” Kevin says immediately. Then: “Do you think that would work?”

Neil huffs out a laugh. “You’re ridiculous.”

“It was your idea.”

“Hey, idiots. Shut the fuck up.”

“We’re going to teach the cats how to play Exy,” Neil says, turning towards Andrew, who glares at him.

“I hate you.”

Neil kisses him. “Four hundred percent,” Andrew says when he pulls away.

“Liar,” Neil responds. “I was at five hundred last week.”

“Sometimes when you’re gone I forget how much I hate you.”

“You could just say you missed me.”

Kevin rolls over and snakes an arm around Neil’s waist, burying his face in Neil’s hair. “Kevin obviously missed me.”

“Kevin knows if he talks about Exy to me I’ll kill him.”

Neil smiles and places a hand on Andrew’s chest. Kevin is already asleep again, breath rustling Neil’s hair. Andrew studies him in the dim light that is filtering through the curtains.

He won’t say it, but Neil knows he missed him anyway. He can tell from the way he shifts slightly closer, the way he kisses him, the hand that grabs his hip too tightly. In the morning Kevin will untangle himself from Neil and tell him all the things he did wrong in the game tonight, and Neil will get annoyed, and Andrew will watch all of this as if he were a spectator at a sports match. In the morning the smell of cigarettes in the apartment will double and Kevin will start making comments. In the morning Neil or Andrew will be unable to reach something and Kevin will get it down from the top shelf with a scathing _it’s not my fault I’m dating midgets._

In the morning, more importantly, Neil will wake up slowly, will try to stretch only to find he is held down by Kevin’s heavy limbs. Andrew will be awake, and he will kiss him slowly, and Kevin will stir at the movement, will press a kiss to the back of Neil’s neck. In the morning he will be happy that the cats ran out when Andrew pulls gently at his lip and Kevin slips a hand down his pants.

In the morning he will remember why he stayed.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. this ended up more kevin/neil i guess bc most of the andrew/neil interactions are already canon idk i have a cold everything is blurry  
> 2\. i wanted to include the foxes more in the hotel scene but this was getting long enough and if i included them it would basically just be me copying and pasting that scene into this fic lmao  
> 3\. any of the dialogue from canon was just based on memory which is why some of the lines are probably accurate and some of them are probably.....not  
> 4\. have i mentioned everything is blurry
> 
> Tumblr @pipermcgay


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